ABC gives 'Cougar Town' Feb. 14 return date

The Courteney Cox sitcom will premiere its will premiere its 15-episode Season 3 at 7:30 p.m. CT, the time slot held briefly by the now canceled "Work It."ABC made the announcement Tuesday.

The news comes less than two weeks after the multi-city "Cougar Town" tour launched by show co-creator Bill Lawrence came to Lincoln Park bar Racine Plumbing, where fans watched the two episodes from Season 3, played Penny Can and chatted up star Busy Philipps and writer Melody Derloshon.

"We're trying to keep a show going that people want to watch," Derloshon told me that night. "And the bottom line is it's just funny. We just want people to laugh and have fun, and we're having fun, and we hope everyone who watches has fun."

Since debuting in 2009, "Cougar Town" has been rather abused by the network, facing a series of scheduling changes and this 10-month delay. Last season, the series was slotted for a spring return after more than two months off the air on a Monday night before continuing in its usual spot on Wednesdays two days later.

Fans were pissed, letting ABC know their displeasure. Derloshon was more polite about the crappy scheduling.

"ABC is running the business and whatever information they had to hold off [on the premiere], maybe that means they have more faith in us," she said. "Maybe they know they can push us off and then bring us back later and we're going to ramp it up. I don't know...